Doing Politics Differently?

Women Premiers in Canada’s Provinces and Territories

Women have reached the highest levels of political office in Canada’s provinces and territories, but what difference – if any – has their rise to the top made? Have they changed the content, tone, or style of political debate? What role has gender played in their triumph and defeat?

In Doing Politics Differently? leading researchers from across the country assess the track records of eleven premiers, including their impact on policies of particular interest to women and their influence on the tenor of legislative debate and the recruitment of other women as party candidates, cabinet ministers, and senior bureaucrats.

From Catherine Callbeck in Prince Edward Island to Christy Clark in British Columbia to Eva Aariak in Nunavut, Canada stands out for the variety and number of women who have reached the top. By comparing the performance of women premiers across the country and by evaluating their records in light of the men who preceded and succeeded them, this innovative volume asks how important demographic diversity is to government decision making.

This book will appeal to both students and scholars of Canadian politics, history, and gender studies, and is an accessible read for anyone interested in women’s political and social status.

Doing Politics Differently? is a wonderful book filled with revelations about gender politics in Canada. Sylvia Bashevkin and her team of collaborators paint a fascinating picture of the eleven women who have led governments in six of our provinces and all three of our territories. Most useful is the categorization of women’s leadership opportunities as “imperiled” or “empowered.” This is a terrific, accessible, and very useful picture of an important facet of governance in our country. These women are helping to redefine political leadership in Canada.The Right Honourable Kim Campbell, Canada’s first and only female prime minister

Essential reading for anyone who wants to know whether women’s presence in executive office matters, Doing Politics Differently? answers critical questions about the impact of women premiers on the tone of political debate, patterns of political recruitment, and policy outcomes.Elisabeth Gidengil, Hiram Mills Professor, Centre for the Study of Democratic Citzenship, McGill University

Sylvia Bashevkin is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She has published widely on topics related to women in politics. She is the editor of Opening Doors Wider: Women’s Political Engagement in Canada (2009) and the author of Tales of Two Cities: Women and Municipal Restructuring in London and Toronto (2006). Her latest book is Women as Foreign Policy Leaders: National Security and Gender Politics in Superpower America (2018). Bashevkin’s distinctions include fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada, the Mildred Schwartz Lifetime Achievement Award in Canadian Politics from the American Political Science Association, and the Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies from the Royal Society.

1 Exploring Women’s Leadership / Sylvia Bashevkin

Part 1: The Territories

2 “Never in My Life Did I Do Anything Alone”: Nellie Cournoyea as Premier of the Northwest Territories / Graham White